Started by a group of engineers in Charlotte, NC, Wireless Supply is in its 10th year manufacturing passive and active components for the communications market. The OEM’s products support the deployment of 5G, DAS, small cells, and public safety in-building wireless systems. Encompassing all of the necessary frequency bands, Wireless Supply aims to be a one-stop-shop for system integrators and installers.
On the passive side, the products include Category 6a cables, fiber cables, antennas, attenuators, hybrid combiners, directional couplers and low-PIM jumpers. The product line features accessories as well, including connectors, cable ties, cable hangers, power adapters, splitters and termination loads.
On the active side, Wireless Supply has been manufacturing 700 MHz and 800 MHz public safety bi-directional amplifiers for almost two years. “We are seeing a large-scale increase in the number of municipalities that are requiring new buildings, and even existing buildings, to provide public safety coverage,” said Jeff Hall, General Manager at Wireless Supply. “Fire codes requiring public safety coverage are even being implemented on a statewide basis. Florida has laws specifically requiring in-building communication systems for public safety.” If an existing building goes through renovations, many municipalities will require that the owner prove the building has public safety coverage, he added.
The Bi-Directional Amplifiers (BDA) product line was the final piece of the public safety puzzle for Wireless Supply. It now has a completely comprehensive, turnkey public safety offering. “Public Safety communications has always been near and dear to me,” Hall said. “For over 40 years now, I’ve been involved in the public safety market.” Wireless Supply is a member of the Safer Buildings Coalition, and Hall is on the organization’s Codes and Standards committee.
The ABCs of BDAs
According to Hall, Wireless Supply is the only manufacturer that produces everything an integrator needs to design an in-building public safety network, including battery backup annunciator panels, both indoor and outdoor antennas, directional couplers, and specialized filters.
The aforementioned elements are then assembled by Wireless Supply in a complete kit, which can be shipped and deployed rapidly. If it’s a new building, the system is attached to a 4-foot by 4-foot fireproof base and shipped directly to the communications center of the building. What previously took 16 to 28 hours now takes two installers 30 to 40 minutes to hang the kit on the wall, explains Hall. Cable is then run to the donor antenna on the roof, to the server antennas on each floor, and finally to the facility where it retransmits the signal.
The BDA kit can be customized as well. If the building owner is short on space, Wireless Supply will take the same kit, rearrange it, rewire it and put it into a 19-inch rack. “The integrator puts the board up with four bolts, wires the batteries in, and flips the switch to turn it on. They log in with their laptop and make the adjustments on gain and other settings to get the maximum coverage and they are ready to be under operation,” Hall said.
In assembling a BDA kit, Hall looks at the in-building wireless system from the integrator’s point of view. He says, with other manufacturers, each component and part of an in-building public safety network may need to be purchased separately. Some parts can be missed or forgotten in the ordering process. With a Wireless Supply kit, all the major components are included plus all the installation supplies, from jumpers to velcro cable ties.
“We stock the small things — installation supplies — that integrators have a hard time getting ahold of,” Hall said. “We try to be the go-to supplier for things they are liable to forget. We ask ourselves, ‘what are the products that they need to plan ahead for?’”
BDA In Action
The public safety kit has been deployed in several buildings so far, including a 16-floor hotel in Florida and the headquarters for a police and sheriff’s department in Arkansas. An integrator also just wired two BDA kits in another new facility that has two buildings in Jacksonville, Florida.
Wireless Supply recently shipped a rack-mount kit for use in a school that had two BDAs on it, with one battery backup and an annunciator, all tied together. “This particular school district requires the public safety in-building systems to cover frequencies from the county and from the nearest major city,” Hall said. “That ends up being 37 frequencies. Our Class A BDA has 32 channels, so we had to split it up across two BDAs and combine everything together. It will still use only one donor antenna.”
Wireless Supply is also seeing a big replacement market for public safety BDAs, according to Hall. Municipalities, several in Ohio, are now demanding the in-building public safety coverage also include the 700 MHz frequencies.
“There are some BDAs that have been out there for years and only have 800 MHz frequencies,” he said. “They can replace their 800 MHz BDA with our 700/800 MHz BDA and keep the existing cabling. It is a lot less expensive.”
…And More to Come
Wireless Supply will be adding to its line of public safety in-building products in the future. It is currently designing a fiber product, and other BDAs are on the drawing board, which will offer more public safety bands.
For more information, call 877-517-8775, email [email protected] or visit wirelesssupply.com.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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